


The Thief and the Moon

by Techmaturgics



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Cosmic AU, Gift Fic, M/M, anniversary fic, but it sorta is?, it isn't really that shippy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-06-03 13:55:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19465393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Techmaturgics/pseuds/Techmaturgics
Summary: Before his fall he was an architect of the cosmos. Before his fall he shone so brilliantly from all the rest.Even now, corrupted and overtaken with mindless obsession, Jhin was breathtaking. That was what Jayce thought as the void parted, ripped and screamed then consumed him whole.(A anniversary fic for my partner of two years. We met via rping Jhin and Jayce and this is a gift for them inspired by the song "The Thief and the Moon" by Shawn James. It takes place before Jhin's fall, during and after.)





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> I was hoping to finish this quickly, but then realized just how much I wanted to write for this fic. I'm thinking of splitting it up into 4 short chapters. I hope you guys enjoy the story and I love you so very much, Mint. My one and only heartlight. 
> 
> If you'd like to see my design for Cosmic Sentinel Jayce you can go to this link of my twitter post. He's a pretty boy, I swear it. 
> 
> https://twitter.com/BunchesofAsh/status/1133976978275459073

Jayce had been catching starfire with his fingertips when he was introduced to Jhin. He was caught in massive waves of cosmic clouds. He had been wading in their depths, running his fingers across brilliant reds, endless blues, and wispy whites. Bright oranges faded off to black, the light of stars fading and going out in dazzling spectacles of colorful explosions. 

Kassadin’s voice rang out the empty expanse just as Jayce had dipped forward two long fingers into the twisting colors. They burned with heat but did not hurt. He lifted his void touched eyes and peered forward through the novas and dancing planets. A single, burning vacuum of hungry violet met his gaze and Jayce was caught by surprise. 

“Sentinel,” Kassadin’s voice rang even stronger than before. He saved Jayce then, lest he be swallowed whole by the strange being staring so intently at him. Jayce glanced at Kassadin, head tilting forward a bit to show that he was listening.

“Our Queen has assigned you a partner.” 

“Partner?” Jayce echoed back hallowly. The starfire on his fingers was beginning to fade. Memories of his past partner burned even more brightly in his mind. He was unsure of how he looked like then. Maybe his expression was thunderous, wary, or apathetic. He didn’t know. 

“Jhin.” 

A new cosmic being stepped forward from the cloth of the void, slinking from the darkness into the light. Stars shimmered along his cloak and danced as he presented himself boldly to Jayce. Bright white and cold gold outlined his slender figure. There was a cocksure manner to him. Jayce felt intensely that he did not like this new being at all.

“I’ve been given the impression that you’re in need of direction, Sentinel.” The lanky and tall creature bowed to Jayce but his lone eye shone brightly from the delicately crafted socket of the golden mask he bore. Laughter. 

Jayce could see it in his movements and his gaze. He definitely did not like this being. He had half a mind to snap at Kassadin and tell him to take Jhin away. He didn’t need another partner. Another betrayal. However, his fellow cosmic being had disappeared into the void once more. To the side of their benevolent queen.

“What direction could you possibly offer me, newborn?” Jayce scoffed. He narrowed his eyes at Jhin. He watched him cock his head slightly and raised a clawed hand. Jhin made a grand, sweeping gesture to the swirling universes and cosmic clouds still partially obscuring Jayce. 

“Why not show me what you can do, Sentinel, then let me show you what I can do.”

Jayce sneered and turned from Jhin, reaching up into the great veneer of space, pulling forth a great, strange hammer-like weapon made of starlight and gold. He remembered when he had shown his last partner this. The Herald had laughed and told him he was vain, yet so infuriatingly brilliant. They had bonded. 

Jayce wondered what the Queen was thinking. Assigning Jayce another partner. Did she think him that unreliable to carry out her will? Was his light inadequate to the point that she needed to give him a child to distract him? Jayce thought he would feel anger but all he felt was the emptiness Viktor’s absence had left in him. 

With a grand gesture, Jayce lifted his hammer. The mechanism clicked and it shimmered, changing into a grand cannon that acted as a relay to his power. He breathed and out poured light. 

Stars whirred and spun. The brilliance of instantaneous creation was blinding. Even Jayce could not see past the canvas of white that spilled across his void eyes. His passion, his spontaneous impulses went into this big bang. The shock blast shook the heavens and the void rippled, making room for the new galaxies that settled themselves afar. 

Starfire burned Jayce’s lungs and he breathed deeply once it was done.

“So it wasn’t just talk.” He suddenly heard a low voice beside him. Jayce stilled the burning in his throat and the pulsing of storms in his chest. He peered at Jhin and was surprised to be confronted with the fact that this newborn was larger than him. Tall, thinner, but his cloak billowed and swirled around him. 

Gaudy, Jayce thought when he examined the patterns and trimmings. Jhin had waded through the clouds and milky swirls of glowing space. They were in the midst of its bright coils, spinning and dripping away like ink whirlpools around their waists.

He heard Jhin take a deep breath from behind his mask as if in anticipation. 

“Now the stage is set,” Jhin purred. “My audience awaits.”

With massively long arms, he reached forward toward Jayce’s creations. Four hands, four arms. All starlight and shimmering abyss. Jayce was mesmerized.

Jhin moved like a being possessed. His hands, large and delicately deadly grasped stars and moved constellations. As if a painter in front of a canvas, he worked diligently on every detail. Moving this planet here and this star there. He twirled novas and clouds around his fingers, and Jayce was hit with a staggering realization.

His head was buzzing. 

“Architect,” Jayce whispered, more breathless than he had intended. It was a statement, an accusation. He now understood why Ashe had given him this newborn. Though Jayce’s big bangs were powerful and awe inspiring, he lacked direction. He lacked the ability and inspiration to alter their design. 

He could feel Jhin’s vicious smile from behind that cool and glinting mask twist the space between them. 

“Yes, and your universes will be molded by  _ my _ hands. I  _ am _ the brush, and  _ you _ the paint. Witness perfection, Sentinel, you’re about to be apart of it.  _ This is my passion _ .”

* * *

From then on they had called him the Architect. He was able to manipulate space and celestial bodies like no one the court had ever seen. He shone brightly from the rest. They worked closely. Him and Jayce. Jhin and him. They were of two different minds, often arguing or trying to irritate the other with sharp jabs of wit and spite. Jayce worked with him because he could not control the arrangement of his universes. Jhin worked with him because his creations were near infinite sources of inspiration and material for him to mold with his hands. 

It worked out. More or less. Their Queen was pleased. As they traveled the cosmos, Jhin and Jayce performed spectacular spectacles of creation and light wherever they went. They often had an audience. However, Jayce was never endeared to crowds. He enjoyed working alone and being left to his own devices. Jhin, on the other hand soaked in the attention. He'd made sure it was a show worth seeing every time they worked. Jayce let him have the limelight. Better him than Jayce.

"He's good for you," he recalled Ashe murmuring to him at one point.

_No_ , he wanted to say to her. _He isn't_. Instead he said nothing. Her eyes of infinite void, much like his own watched him patiently. 

"He's helping you, isn't he?"

"He is," Jayce had replied quickly. Helping was a broad term. Helping meant a lot of things, not all positive. He still didn't know what to think of Jhin. Since working with him, Jayce had learned how to arrange. Just a small bit. He definitely could not rearrange and position with as much skill as Jhin even if he worked for it for millions of years. It was simply not possible. Yet, he tried and he was learning. Unfortunately so. 

Jhin was not the most patient and kind teacher, and Jayce was not the best student in terms that his own stubbornness got in the way of most things. Jhin was eloquent though. He was able to explain things fairly well that even Jayce was able to figure out some things. 

No, he was helping alright. But Jayce still didn't like him. 

Jayce remembered leaving their conversation at that. 

There were many odd instances and moments that followed and filled the spaces after between Jhin and Jayce. They always left Jayce feeling odd. There was something different about Jhin. Something off. Jayce knew it from the first moment he met Jhin but he couldn't put any words to it or coherent thoughts. So he simply let it simmer. He let it sit in the back of his mind like dark spaces waiting to be filled. 

In the mean time they had grown somewhat close. At least that's what Jayce had gleaned from their continued partnership. Wherever Jayce was, Jhin was close behind. Always on his heels, always eager to get his hands on whatever Jayce could forge from his hammer and light. There was always a greedy gleam in his eye. Twinkling and glinting darkly from afar. 

It unsettled Jayce as much as drew him closer. 

Jayce hadn't realized how close they had grown until he found himself allowing himself rest around Jhin. They had been working harder than before. Jayce had created a system larger than he had ever created before. It filled an impressive amount of space within the void of infinity. It stretched farther than the court could see and was filled with a sea of mystery and interesting formations and stars. Jhin had been delighted of course. To have a challenge and to test his limits upon a larger canvas. 

He had immediately gone to work and Jayce had immediately after gone to rest. One moment he had been awake then the next he was gone. 

Jayce opened his eyes once consciousness had coiled around his mind. His head was resting upon something soft and hard at the same time. He watched with a sideways look as Jhin rearranged a constellation, humming a quiet, haunting tune. Jayce closed his eyes briefly. He listened without thought and simply allowed himself to exist. 

He didn't think of the fact that he was resting his head on Jhin's legs or the fact that one, clawed hand was buried in his hair. He felt Jhin's fingers idly stroke through his strands. His hair dark and inky revealed a deep cosmic blue beneath each strand and stars swirled and spun within their depths. Every now and then they would fall from Jayce's head and land on the fabric of Jhin's cloak, sizzling and burning out like dying embers of a fire. 

He felt tempted to speak, say anything. Yet at the same time he was almost afraid to break this strange, intimate moment. It was something entirely new to Jayce. Jayce's body felt numb, frozen all over except where Jhin's hand rested along the side of his head, the tips of his fingers drawing nonsensical patterns into his scalp. His touch felt too intimate and much more gentle than Jayce would have ever anticipated.  He didn't know what he anticipated, only that it was never this.  His touched seared and chilled Jayce all at the same time. 

Stars followed the flow of Jhin's supple hands, connecting and dancing. He heard their quiet song and laughter as Jhin directed their steps. A new constellation. Jayce listened to Jhin's humming for a speechless moment longer before speaking, his voice low. 

"Do you have a name for those children?" He asked. 

Jhin lifted his chin, hood obscuring his mask.

"Mmm," he intoned thoughtfully. "They have no name. Yet. I'm afraid I've yet to feel satisfied of this arrangement." A star began to shrink and quiver just as he said that. Jhin clicked his tongue and snapped his fingers. 

"Stop that, no resizing. And no moping. Ugh."

Jayce snickered. He felt Jhin's fingers scrape against his scalp once more, a little harder than before. Maybe in annoyance or warning. Jayce didn't know and he didn't really care.

"What do you want, little one?" Jayce asked, this time rising slightly from Jhin's lap. He reached out and held his hand out. The star floated away from Jhin and into Jayce's gloved hand. Jhin glanced down at them. Jayce could practically feel Jhin's sneering. 

"Don't spoil them. We'll leave them soon enough."

Jayce ignored Jhin and spoke to the star again. "How about you show me who you are?" He felt the star bounced and swayed. Jayce grinned. "Go now, show your fathers what you were meant to be." 

It was off in an instant, floating back to Jhin and rejoining its siblings. They twisted and turned, dancing away and filling out in a long, wobbly circle. Bright and stunning. They glittered and Jayce watched as they aligned in a way that was perfectly imperfect. A new constellation was formed. Jayce could feel Jhin sag against him disappointedly.

He lifted his head to look at Jhin and was met with his intense gaze. They didn't speak for a long moment. Jhin sighed. 

"Not exactly what I had in mind," he grumbled. "I would have never allowed that." Jayce laughed loudly, a sharp and warm sound.

"But you did," he countered smugly. "They're happy." He suddenly felt Jhin's curling fingers in his hair once more, clawed fingertips at the ends of his strands and catching starlight in the palm of his hand. Their eyes caught for a moment. Jayce didn't understand what it meant. What all of this meant. Jhin's gaze was cold like the void, but hot like stars burning out their last moments. 

Jayce turned his head, feeling cold claws brush across his cheek as he went. He rose. Jhin's voice echoed after him. A single question that hit Jayce with staggering impact. 

"Are you happy?" 

Jayce did not reply as he disappeared into the fabric of space, leaving Jhin alone to his work. 


	2. The Fall

Jayce had witnessed many things in his long, and immeasurable life. He had seen strange and incomprehensible things. He had scoured the far reaches of the infinite expanse of space and fought the corruption of the Dark Star beside his fellow Cosmics. However, somewhere along the way one tiny detail in the grand scheme of Jayce’s mind had changed during the time between his moment of birth and the eons he spent with the ever moving court.

He believed that they were closer to the Dark Star than any of the others would like to admit. Viktor had thought the same. Viktor had thought a lot of things. That was why he fell. If falling were such a bad thing anyway. Connotation argued it was, but neither of them thought it so. They were all children of Silent Gods after all. Even the Dark Star. They were all birthed from nothing and against reason and logic - thrived. 

“Do you know the reason why the others never ask?” Viktor had spoken out loud. More about proving a point than asking Jayce a question. Jayce remained silent. 

“Because our existence is.. Ineffable.” He waved his staff in a flourish in front of him, the wave of light that followed echoed across in endless waves into the empty black, as far as the eye could see. Viktor withdrew, sighing. 

“We are indescribable. Our makers do not answer us. Who knows if even themselves would know anything. There will never be answers to any questions we seek concerning our existences. What is our reason?”

“Our reason is what we make it. We are Cosmics. We’re meant to spread light across the Void.”

Viktor sneered. Jayce could practically hear it from beneath his mask. He placed a hand on Jayce’s shoulder. The weight of it heavy and familiar.

“That’s the court’s reason. Ashe’s. We are not them. We don’t have to be either Cosmic or Dark Star. We can be something different. Something more.” Viktor’s hand fell from Jayce. “Or maybe something less,” he added vaguely. 

Jayce inclined his head forward. “What do you want to be, Herald?”

He watched Viktor turn and gaze out into the dark, an immovable tower against the tides of empty space. 

“Not this,” he replied quietly. 

They did not speak thereafter about it. About their place in existence and the nameless gods that created or didn’t create them. When Viktor left the court to pursue some unknown destiny beyond their light, Jayce would not speak to anyone about what they discussed. He had rarely spoken to anyone else to begin with. He was a solitary being after all.

Fallen, they had all whispered about Viktor. Coward, some said. Jayce ignored them all. Until a strange time later, Jhin had waltzed into his small, boring life. Before Jhin, Jayce had often pondered whether or not he should have left with Viktor. Wherever he went, it was unlikely that they'd ever meet again. Jhin distracted Jayce from his subtle regret. Their conversations were similar to Jayce’s previous ones with Viktor. However, they always held a darker note. 

Jhin did not seek something other than their divinity. He embraced it like no other Jayce had met. In fact he was proud and vain. He did not contemplate about their grand reason or question the court’s motives. He was always thinking about what he could do or what he wanted to do. Jayce knew something was off about him. From that bright gleam in his eye to the haunting tune of his voice. The way sometimes his gaze would linger a moment too long on the broken cradles that Xin Zhao could not protect. He breathed in too deeply the dust of scarred battlefields that Yi and Kassadin fought corruption upon.

Jayce could not read him. He couldn’t understand a lot of things about Jhin. And he didn't attempt to.

And so, time passed in a way that could never be measured. Mortal boundaries and concepts did not apply to them. They followed Ashe’s court across the great depths of space. Jayce would create, and Jhin would arrange. Jayce was unsure what to call their relationship. He was still not fond of the strange and ominous being that was Jhin. However, he could not deny the perfect way they complimented each other’s work. They argued. Often and came to blows several times in a fury of stardust and blinding flashes. 

Jhin had a fine way of getting under Jayce's skin. 

They didn’t like each other. They weren’t friends. Barely partners. 

Yet, somehow Jayce felt.. Comfortable. Oddly enough despite the disquieting feeling that would sometimes settle into the depths of Jayce's gut while in Jhin's presence. 

And sometimes while Jhin drew his long hands across the void, Jayce would look at him. As if searching for something that even all the stars in all the galaxies and universes couldn’t answer. He didn’t understand what he was searching for when he noticed himself watching Jhin. 

Until he noticed Jhin watching him as well. It could have been Jayce’s imagination. To feel the intensity of that darkened gaze watching him. It unsettled Jayce, and it also thrilled him. It made the starlight in his veins burn brighter. 

When Jayce was creating his galaxies, he was wholly consumed in the act. Nothing could stir him from it. His eyes saw infinity and his hands molded intricate creations. Nothing except for that one moment. It was the first time anyone had ever stirred him from it.

Jayce had brought forth his hammer, striking the void as if it were hot iron. Light burst forth and Jayce’s void eyes, so like how Ashe’s reflected the intricacies of the cosmos. He had felt a brush along his neck. Sharp and distant. Jayce could barely feel it but it did not go unnoticed. His concentration wasn’t broken, but he was vaguely aware in his meditative state. Then something brushed his hair, drew his head back slowly. Stars fell from beneath his strands and Jayce could see them become shooting stars from the corner of his eye. 

Jayce felt cold panic in his veins. He trembled, and the universe began to cry. 

Dropping his hammer with a thunderous sound, he gasped as he forcefully drew himself back to his senses. Away from the light and away from his quivering creation that spun and teetered on the edge of collapse. 

Jhin’s stared down at Jayce, watching his eyes sink back to the abyss. He lifted his gaze toward Jayce’s ruined creation and something flickered in his eye. Something unknown. Jayce felt a twisting in his gut and he forced himself to look.

Ruin. 

His creation was becoming corrupted. Dying. He couldn’t bear to watch it collapse. To hear the stars cry and the planets screech. Yet Jhin continued to look, as if unable to breathe or move.

“Beautiful,” Jhin murmured. He released Jayce, stretching out to grasp a graying planet, its rings shattered and fragments falling away. Jayce staggered and steadied himself by holding onto Jhin’s cloak. Jhin did not seem to notice. 

“We need to go,” Jayce hissed, his mind still partly dazed and a cold feeling in his heart. “The Dark Star’s creations will soon be upon us. You do not have your weapon. Why did you... _Jhin_.” He called to him again. Trying to catch his attention and drag it away from his mess. Their mess. If they were to warn the Queen, Lulu, and the others, they could be prepared for a fight. 

Jhin finally cast Jayce a disappointed glance, letting the crumbling remnants of the planet slip through his fingers. “Let them come,” he said, his voice loud and echoing. Jhin’s clawed fingertips grazed Jayce’s neck once more. Jayce stood stubbornly still even as the touch seared his skin and made his heart seize. He pulled his hand away then brushed a thumb across Jayce’s cheek.

“Go then, if you so desire.” His voice taunted Jayce. There was something in his gaze. Something hiding in plain sight. His lone, violet eye ringed with gold and infinite blue glinted from beneath his gilded mask. 

As if rooted, Jayce did not move even as Jhin turned from him, back toward the dying universe that stretched across from them. He felt familiar turmoil for the first time in centuries. He knew this. Familiar signs. The distant look, the crazed obsession. It spelled something unsettling in the stars. 

“You know not of what you seek,” Jayce said then.

Jhin stilled. 

“What do you know of what I seek, Sentinel?” 

“If you continue on this path, Architect, there will be no turning back.”

“ _But what do you know of what I seek_?” His words were a booming hiss and now Jhin was upon him, looming over Jayce with his crooked claws and gleaming eye. Jayce did not shy away. 

“I know you'll doom the world to wander the void with no light. I know that your _passion_ draws you closer to madness than ascension. Your greed will bring your end, Jhin.” He wasn’t sure if he was pleading with him but it felt like it. He realized then he did not want to lose Jhin and it made his head spin.

He knew from the very moment he and Jhin started working together that he would turn to ruin. Yet, he didn’t say anything, didn’t attempt to change the fate he saw. Something about seeing the dark gleam in his eye now with such clarity and blatant evidence somehow shook Jayce to his core. He knew he lost him immediately even if in his heart he did not want to see it. 

“Oh, but everything _will_ be mine. This world will be mine as I make it to be. I will mold eternity by my hands. Why stick to these small scale canvases that you call your universes? Why only be satisfied with _your_ stars? When there’s an entire infinity of worlds waiting for me in the void beyond, why settle for something,” his eye flickered down to Jayce, “Pedestrian.” 

The insult bounced off of Jayce without much impact. He was already used to these words. He did not care for them. Only for the way Jhin shone so brightly as he spoke. Animated and arms outstretched. From behind Jhin’s overbearing figure Jayce could see the inklings of large, twisting forms expanding from the dark. They writhed and clawed their way out of black holes and torn realities. 

Dark Star. 

Jayce was suddenly aware of Jhin closing in on him now. He slipped away with a growl, gripping his stardust hammer. 

“Then leave me,” he said, glaring at Jhin. “Follow that endless hunger and see where it will take you. There is nothing but emptiness waiting for you.” 

The encroaching darkness was spreading fast, as if the fabric of reality was eating itself from the inside out. Jhin snarled and reached for Jayce only to be eluded once more. Jayce waded past churning galaxies, hot like molten iron in a forge of starlight. 

“Do you not hear it, Jayce? The singing of space? How it has chosen _me_? Come back and watch _me!_ **_Witness my grand design!_ **”

The world behind Jayce was dissolving and he did not dare to look back at what unholy fate he had left Jhin to. Corruption was his core, the Dark Star had long been whispering in his ears the centuries Jayce had been by his side. He had seen it, but could only watch as Jhin chased them desperately, believing in their every coy word. He would not hear Jayce’s warnings and this was his last. 

“You cannot run from me, Sentinel,” Jhin’s voice echoed loudly behind him. “I will make you whole again and I will carve the patterns of my design into the void of those precious eyes of yours. I will connect you to everything.”

Jayce was gone before the great screeching of darker beings tearing his crumbling universe apart could reach his ears. 

* * *

“Sentinel!” Kassadin exclaimed as Jayce clattered heavily onto a large, open space of fragmented, smooth rock. Yi stood silently several fragments away as Kassadin raised his blade in alarm. Queen Ashe sat upon her throne in their court, constellations and a million other galaxies shining brightly behind her flowing cape. Massive. She was larger and grander than all of them. Kassadin and Yi could only measure up to the size of her hand. 

Lulu hovered to his side, casting hot starlight from her fingertips to seal the bleeding starlight that slipped from his cut neck and cheek. He hadn’t realized he was bleeding but knew immediately it was from when Jhin touched him. He couldn’t help but feel cold and hot all at the same time from the memory. Like a fever spreading through his flesh. 

“My Queen,” Jayce grounded out wearily. “Jhin is gone.”

“The Dark Star?” 

Her voice was like space. Infinite, loud, cool, and silent all at the same time. 

Jayce nodded mutely. 

“We will move the court,” she said then, as if she had known this was coming just as long as Jayce had. It was just a matter of when. Jayce didn’t feel any bit reassured. 

“We wish to fight, your highness,” Yi said then, lifting his head beneath his hood. Kassadin was beside him then, likely of the same mind. Lulu fussed over Jayce, the Enchantress drawing him away from the throne room. Back to his chamber of melting stars, thick cosmic clouds and spinning rings. He caught his Queen’s words just before he left.

“It is too late. The Dark Star has him now. The birth of a corrupted is no place for us to be. It is too dangerous for you two. We will move the court.”


	3. The Aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took forever to actually sit down and write what I had written in my notebook. But, here's the third part. I was really strapped for ideas and inspiration as well as motivation, but once I actually sat down and had myself think it was much better. I have about 30% of the last part finished. I just need to figure out how I want the rest to play out. Thanks for reading and supporting me!

And they did. 

Just like that, just as fast as Jhin had joined their ranks, he left them. The whispers of the court did not go deaf on Jayce’s ears. Even before Jhin’s fall he was always a popular topic among the court’s more talkative bunch. 

Jayce returned to his duties easily enough. By himself. He had implored Ashe to allow him his space. He could not bear another unfortunate betrayal. Of course, that was a lie. He could afford several hundred more. He wasn’t as badly hurt as he let some think he was. 

However, he felt Jhin’s absence more keenly than he ever did Viktor’s. Maybe because Jhin had been more responsive toward Jayce than Viktor was. His arguments were not driven by mere logic as much as they were driven by odd angles and sharp edges. That was what Jhin was. A strange amalgamation of strangely fused quartz and different rocks and metals. He had a quality from each. 

Sometimes it was hard to keep up with him.

Viktor was methodical, precise. It was something Jayce had always admired about him before his own fall. Jayce wondered if by chance the Architect and the Herald had ever met in whatever twisted spaces they inhabit now. 

Viktor was never.. A bad being. He just had different views than the rest of the cosmic beings that lived in Ashe’s court. He was fallen but not lost. He wasn’t corrupted. Jayce remembered when Jhin had once asked about him.

“The Radiant spoke to me sometime ago,” Jhin had mused as Jayce had been engrossed with fiddling with the inner cosmic workings of his hammer. His hands worked over it with ease, nimble and diligent. Jhin stood beside Jayce, almost close enough that his cloak brushed Jayce’s shoulder. His head was tilted slightly and that strange eye peering down at him.

“She said that you had a partner. Before me.” 

Jayce looked away with a sigh. He was sure Lux didn’t mean to pry. She was always worried about everyone else. Jayce wondered if she was worried about Jhin. If perhaps he’d turn out worse for him than Viktor. Jayce swiftly steered the conversation away from any thought of Viktor.

“She doesn’t like you,” Jayce pointed out flatly. “Why were you talking to her?”

Jhin made a movement with his head as if he were rolling his eyes. “She talked to me first,” he retorted, his tone annoyed. “She doesn’t hide her dislike very well. I dare say she doesn’t even try.” 

Jayce laughed at that. 

“A lot of people are unsettled by you. You are very strange.”

Jhin perked up at the sound of it and peered even more intensely at Jayce, almost curiously so. He drew closer, looming over Jayce, his cloak billowing out softly. Jayce elbowed him slightly in annoyance. A warning for him to keep his space. Jhin always ignored it. 

“Do I unsettle you?”

Jayce immediately avoided the question. He stuck his finger into a crevice, turning unseen cogs and fine tuning the clockwork of the cosmos inside his hammer. He was avoiding a lot of things. Jayce ignored any further questions and prodding until Jhin gave up and grew bored of him. 

There was something dangerous about having Jhin’s attention. Jayce never allowed himself more than a short conversation of it. It was almost as if you needed to guard yourself from his intensity. He was obsessive, passionate. Cold and hotter than star fire all at the same time. 

And Viktor, Viktor was cold reverence. He was distant moons on mercury soaked planets. He was just as intense, but you could almost tell what he was thinking. It was never anything that you'd expect though. He was something tangible but far away. Just before he left the grace of the court, Viktor had asked Jayce if he wanted to leave with him. 

He stood with his back against the burning void, before the cusp of coiling space and the sheer drop into endless black. He was a shining light in the darkness and Jayce could not look away from him. He was something entirely different. He was more and also less. He wasn’t cosmic nor dark star.

Viktor looked at Jayce behind his silver starlight mask, as if he truly, truly wanted Jayce to follow him over the edge. They could go together and wander the rippling tears of space and follow rivers of swirling light. Viktor asked him and he held his hand out.

And for a brief, glorious moment, Jayce really felt like he wanted to. He felt it with more emotion and desire than he had ever experienced in the entirety of his long and strange existence. There was nothing more in all the galaxies that he had ever wanted. However, Jayce was a coward. He didn’t have the resolve Viktor did. He had never experienced such pure emotion. The uncertainty of what lie beyond frightened him. It scared him. 

So he ran.

He turned away from Viktor and let him slip away into the deep. Until the memory of him was the only thing Jayce could hear and see. He never saw Viktor again. Prayed he wouldn’t so he wasn’t tempted to throw himself at Viktor and ask for his forgiveness, and to leave with him once more. 

No, he couldn’t do that. Not anymore. His opportunity had passed and he chose this path. He chose to serve and to be faithful. He chose to be empty. 

Jhin seemed to fill some of the spaces in Jayce. He was a force. He was.. Jhin. There were no words to describe the incredibly petty and mystifying creature he was. As time passed, Jayce had soon began to forget Jhin just as he had allowed Viktor to fade from his conscious thought, however it appeared Jhin had other plans. 

He hadn’t realized the intensity of Jhin’s obsession with him until, Xin Zhao, defender of newborn universes approached him. He was a grand being. Brilliant gold among tidal waves of everlasting blue. He shone brightly and stood proud. However, when Jayce met him this time he bowed his head softly to him. He appeared sorrowful. His voice was low and gentle when he spoke. 

“He’s destroying your children,” Xin Zhao had said to Jayce. He was full of soft quietness and gentle warmth. Jayce felt bewildered. He furrowed his brows.

“What do you mean, Defender?” 

“Jhin,” he said sharply. He inhaled slowly. “He is.. Seeking out your creations, past and present. He’s devouring and destroying them. I’m sorry, I could not protect them all.”

Jayce remained mute for a long moment. He was simply stunned. Jayce had thought Jhin would forget him in his madness. 

“Why?” He asked. He wasn’t sure why he did, he knew the answer.

Xin Zhao shook his head.

“I cannot say.”

_You cannot escape me._

Jhin’s words seem to burn in Jayce’s mind. Was he so intent on destroying Jayce? Jhin was more a fool than he had anticipated. The death of a cosmic was momentous. But Jayce didn’t doubt that Jhin cared not for the rest of the world and all the universes. He cared only for ruin, to bring an end to all things. Apparently a very painful end to Jayce specifically. 

What did he do to him other than speak the truth about his obsession? Probably the strangest thing was that he wasn’t even half as disturbed as he should be. It was horrible though, it truly was. Jayce couldn’t comprehend eating his children. Their children. The thought made him dizzy with disgust. 

“Thank you,” he said swiftly to Xin Zhao. They nodded at each other. Jayce watched as Xin Zhao pulled back between the strands of his hair and grasped gently at something. He held it out to Jayce, fingers slowly unfurling. Jayce felt his breath catch and he reached out tenderly to cup the quivering star into his palms. 

He felt it. Barely there. It was warm. One of the first they named. The rebellious star Jhin has scolded and Jayce had let free. It held more significance to him than he would have thought and he cradled it gently against his breast. He could feel its sorrow digging into his skin.

“I.. will you take me to my other children?” Jayce asked quietly. He closed his eyes briefly, steeling himself. 

“Do you think that best? He will come again. If he is there, I fear I may not be able to protect you all.”

“Take me, please.” 

There was silence between them. Jayce knew he was being rash, but something had begun to tick inside of him. Something was emerging from the cold shell of his galactic being and it cried out for action. Jayce knew he needed to go. Whether he died or not. This was his responsibility. 

“I will take you, Sentinel, but you do this at your own risk. Will you leave that one in my care again?” He motioned to the trembling star in Jayce’s hands. Upon hearing the suggestion it floated up and swirled around Jayce’s form until it found a spot within the glittering stars of his hair. 

“I see," Xin Zhao said solemnly, his voice betraying a hint of sorrow. "Please be careful then."


End file.
